The Crown Prince Ascends the Entertainment Throne - Chapter 9

Fortunately, Xiang Xu had been observant in the bookstore, watching how others read. Therefore, he now knew that books in this world were read horizontally from left to right. Although he did not understand many of the vocabulary definitions, he was lucky that each character was mostly followed by examples citing ancient texts. Since Xiang Xu was familiar with the vast majority of these ancient texts, he could use them to map the writing style of this world.

He flipped to the main text first to get a general understanding before turning to the Pinyin and radical tables at the front. The Pinyin table seemed like gibberish to him, but the radical table was much easier to grasp.

It was somewhat similar to their system of phono-semantic characters.

As he explored, he began searching through the dictionary for the text he had copied from the glowing screen the day before.

With a reference book and the ability to distinguish radicals, the process was not that difficult. After half an hour of effort, he had a general idea of what was written, though understanding the nuances remained tricky.

“Big Brother, can you boost my rank for the new season?” “-Sure.” “Great, did you receive the payment?” “[‘The other party has transferred 100 yuan to you’ (Payment received)]” “-Saw it. Thanks. Find me again when you have more orders.” “OK. [Smiley face] [Smiley face]” “Big Brother, can you boost my rank for the new season? This time it is the district qualifiers, I can pay extra!” “Did you see the message?” “Reply to me if you see this, Big Brother! If my boss finds out I lost my ranking, he will kill me!” “[‘The other party has transferred 100 yuan to you’ (Timed out and refunded)]” “[‘The other party has transferred 100 yuan to you’ (Timed out and refunded)]” “[‘The other party has transferred 100 yuan to you’ (Timed out and refunded)]” “Big Brother, you haven’t quit the game, have you? You haven’t been online for a long time. Please don’t! I can’t find anyone with better skills than you!”

The last few lines were sent by the other party just last night while Xiang Xu was copying the previous ones.

“It’s the last few days! Big Brother! Reply to my message when you see it! [Crying] [Crying]” “[‘The other party has transferred 500 yuan to you’]”

Although the context was difficult to grasp, Xiang Xu’s sensitivity to money helped him understand what those transfer notices meant.

It seemed this Xiang Xu was not just a freeloader; he had actually earned some money.

Xiang Xu felt slightly satisfied, but he was immediately stunned.

Could he not earn money this way, too?

A sharp light flickered in Xiang Xu’s eyes, as if piles of gold and silver were shimmering before him.

He had to understand what the “new season,” “district qualifiers,” and “logging into the game” meant.

This might be the first bucket of gold he could earn since arriving in this world!

Thinking of this, Xiang Xu spent an hour exercising in the park and listening to the way passersby communicated. Then, impatient, he grabbed the dictionary and dashed home.

Sitting back at the computer desk, Xiang Xu had gained some experience. He moved the mouse, and the computer screen lit up.

The message box remained where it was last night, with one extra line of small gray text: “You have a pending transfer to receive.”

Facing this strange object, Xiang Xu’s heart pounded with excitement, but he felt little fear.

Exploration of the unknown was built upon trial and error.

Moreover, because he had watched the cashier girl operate the security cameras earlier, using the mouse was not particularly difficult for him.

Xiang Xu clicked here and there with the mouse. Perhaps due to some lingering body memory, he became familiar with it quite quickly.

He soon learned basic operations like opening and closing windows. Combined with the reference book, he roughly understood what the names of the software meant.

Suddenly, he discovered a great tool in the bottom left corner of the desktop labeled “Font.”

After adjusting them one by one, his hand froze. He stared at the computer desktop, both shocked and delighted.

Every single character… he could read them.

This was a major breakthrough. Now, understanding the meaning of everything became much easier.

Although the desktop font had changed, the dialog box had not. So, he clicked around until he finally found the font settings for the dialog box and adjusted them joyfully.

After these adjustments, Xiang Xu felt like a genius. He learned how to scroll up through the chat messages and finally found a key piece of information.

“Are you the booster for Epoch of God’s Erosion?”

Xiang Xu quickly found the icon labeled “Epoch of God’s Erosion” on the desktop.

After a few seconds of hesitation, he double-clicked to enter the game.

The colorful game graphics flickered to life before his eyes, and epic music filled his ears. Xiang Xu felt a sense of familiarity within his body, confirming he had found the right place.

Inside the game, a daily login gift popped up. After closing that, a monthly login bonus appeared, followed by several recharge prompts. After great effort, Xiang Xu finally managed to close all the pop-up windows and, with even more effort, found the setting to change the font and turned all the in-game text into the script of the Yin Dynasty.

It felt like divine assistance. By the time Xiang Xu realized it, he found he was already skillfully performing his daily quests.

These things should have been the most unfamiliar to him, yet the more he operated, the more natural it felt. He felt both deeply comforted and almost moved to tears.

Xiang Xu of this world, how many games did you play? Even now that your soul is gone, your body can still play them.

But thank goodness you played so many games; for the first time in this world, I feel a sense of belonging.

Epoch of God’s Erosion was a role-playing game operated via mouse and keyboard. Xiang Xu placed his hands on the peripherals, his fingers moving with surprising agility.

Even so, Xiang Xu felt strange, as if his body did not belong to him. Whenever he noticed this, his hand movements would freeze, leading his character to get beaten up by monsters. Consequently, he tried to empty his mind, and the character on the screen would skillfully heal and counterattack.

Suddenly, he saw another character jumping around like a monkey in front of his own, and the chat box immediately began to beep.

“Big Brother, you’re finally online! Please boost me for the district qualifiers!”

Xiang Xu did not feel the slightest bit of tension. He copied the “Sure” from earlier and sent it over.

“So, will you take over my account now?”

Xiang Xu scrolled up, found a “In two days,” and sent it.

“Why in two days?”

Xiang Xu searched through the chat history and found “A bit busy lately” to send.

“Then take the money first! Hurry!” The other party, clearly afraid he would play dead and run away, urged him immediately.

Xiang Xu knew that accepting the money established a contractual relationship, and if he failed to deliver, it might lead to big trouble.

Proceeding with caution, he found “Pay after the job is done” in the chat history and sent it.

“I beg you, Big Brother. You won’t disappear suddenly again this time, will you?”

Xiang Xu simply re-sent the “Won’t” from that very sentence.

“I’ll trust you one more time! Remember, it must be done before the end of the month!”

“-Sure.”

Xiang Xu could almost see the person on the other side letting out a sigh of relief, but then he sent another message.

“Big Brother, why have you been using Traditional characters all day today?”

Xiang Xu closed the chat box, pretending not to see it, and opened Epoch of God’s Erosion, continuing to study while completing quests.

After an unknown amount of time, Xiang Xu shifted his gaze down to the keyboard in the computer drawer.

The characters on them were very similar to those at the beginning of his reference book, and today at the bookstore, he had seen the cashier using this device to type text.

Copying and pasting chat content was not a long-term solution; it seemed he had to learn how to type himself.

He would go to that bookstore again tomorrow and buy some reference books for learning this, using the voucher the cashier had given him.

Besides, he already had experience; this time, he would simply write what he wanted to say in the language of this world on a piece of paper and show it to the staff.

Given today’s events, the staff probably would not make things difficult for him again.

After buying the books, he would go to the park to exercise.

Having made his plans for the next day, Xiang Xu’s heart felt clear and bright.

He stood up from the computer desk and began to search the room.

His goal was a wallet and a phone.

Fortunately, when he was at the noodle shop today, he had seen someone pay with cash, so he understood what the currency of this world looked like.

These two items were not hard to find. The wallet was in the cupboard, containing scattered bills of green, blue, and yellow. The phone was beside the pillow, but no matter what, Xiang Xu could not make it glow.

One step at a time. If he had money, he at least wouldn’t starve. He would observe how this phone was used on the streets tomorrow.

Xiang Xu was very optimistic.

He had survived the day safely and learned many things. For Xiang Xu, who had just arrived in this world, this was a major breakthrough.

Xiang Xu praised himself, played with the game on the computer for a while, and then lay down on the bed, flipping through the dictionary and reading page by page.

When he was awakened by the sound of a key opening the door, Xiang Xu opened his eyes. It was completely dark outside.

Xiang Xu rubbed his eyes and opened the bedroom door, leaning against the frame.

Xiang Ji put down her bag and changed her shoes. When she looked up and saw Xiang Xu leaning on the doorframe, she was genuinely startled.

“You are…” She spoke as she scanned him, increasingly surprised. Her astonishment deepened when she saw he had pinned back his hair with one of her hair clips, revealing his eyes. She was too shocked to speak.

Xiang Xu stuffed the slip of paper in his hand into Xiang Ji’s palm and blinked at her.

Not knowing what her brother was up to, Xiang Ji looked tense. She saw Xiang Xu still leaning there, his gaze fixed on her hand holding the note.

After hesitating for a moment, Xiang Ji opened the note. She saw a few words written somewhat awkwardly.

“I want to start a new life.”

Xiang Xu had decided. He certainly couldn’t hide these changes from the sister he lived with. Since she had taken him to see a doctor and filled his prescriptions yesterday, he might as well use this opportunity to appear as though he had improved after taking the medicine. In this way, she would convince herself that the medication had taken effect, explaining his recent odd behavior.

Even so, his command of the language was not yet mature, and he was not confident in the translation he had checked in the dictionary.

He looked at his sister’s expression with some anxiety, but saw her staring at the note for a long time. Suddenly, she pressed the paper against her chest, lowered her eyes rapidly, turned, and went back into her room, closing the door.

Xiang Xu stood there, bewildered, scratching his head. He carefully approached his sister’s room but heard faint sounds of sobbing coming from inside.

Recalling her expression just now and thinking of his own sister in the Yin Dynasty, their faces blending together, Xiang Xu felt a complex mix of emotions.

The next day, Xiang Xu found it much more familiar when he slipped out.

He walked into the bookstore again, only to see the cashier girl look behind him in alarm upon seeing him, her eyes searching for a long time before she finally exhaled in relief.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness, it’s just you today…”

Xiang Xu knew who she was guarding against. He sighed with amusement and placed the note with his request in front of her.